Beyond Black Mesa Release Date

Half-Life Series
#41

As an amateur low budget movie, that was certainly impressive.

As an HL2 based short movie? Not so much.

First off, why did they change the HL headcrab zombies into 28 Days Later/L4D style zombies? Couldn’t afford headcrab props? This is a slap in the face of HL fans.

Then they throw an holographic effect that, while was well done and looks really cool, it has no place in the HL2 universe, since the resistance has no access to technology like that. I mean, some of their weapons and vehicles are made from spare parts. How did they suddenly get a portable holographic computer? Doesn’t make sense. Just use a normal map. Whatever money they spent on this could have been used to make some headcrab props for the zombies.

Still, it wasn’t going too bad until they got to the fight scene between Adrian and the Metrocop. Now, it wouldn’t be too bad if they kept it believable as a simple hand to hand fight, but no, they had to have the Metrocop pull out a fucking Katana or something. And to add insult to injury, they give the characters some martial art acrobatics. What. The. Fuck.

Now, I understand these guys wanted some kickass short to include in their resume and making it based on a game loved by a lot of people was a sure fire way to attract a lot of attention. But why make all those changes and deviations from the source material? If you want your fanfic video to gain a lot of reputation amongst the community you’re targeting it for, you have to stay loyal to the source material as much as you can.

Escape from City 17 is a good example of that.

Now if this was an original short, with no ties to HL, this would’ve been much better.

#42

Much better than Escape from City 17.

I don’t care how inaccurate it is to the stupid game. I think the combine were my favorite part of this.
The outfits are great and the red-eye effect upon death is a nice touch.
The actors playing them were really good at dying, especially the one that was pissing on the wall.

Samurai guy was entertaining as hell. That’s what this film is. It’s entertaining.
Just different enough from the games to be new and interesting.

#43

It’s a well made movie but it shouldn’t have been based on HL2.

Inspired by it perhaps, but not a direct fanfic style work.

#44

Just because they changed a few tiny aesthetics and swapped atmospheres with District 9 doesn’t make it a bad Half-Life film.
I bet Hollywood would have fucked with it even more.

#45

Why did he go to the Northern Petrol building?

Why didn’t lulsy random rebel yell run or anything when the zombies came?

Changing the zombies was a horrible thing to do. One could use the excuse they were pre-skin-shed fast zombies, though.

I think honestly having the combine’s eyes glow is awesome looking, and that VALVe should have done that.

Health vials are really cool. Crowbar.

Thought the combine ninja fight was… Strange.

Ending was dumb they should have at least ran.

#46

t’was awesome

#47

I get the feeling that this started as an original action short movie but early on they figured that it wouldn’t garner much attention as an original work, so they decided to make it based on a popular work of fiction. HL2 must’ve been the perfect match and as such they adapted their ideas into the HL2 universe.

It certainly worked really well as a way to garner attention but the end result is something that doesn’t feel much like the source material and has stuff that simply doesn’t belong in the HL2 universe.

However, as an amateur low budget movie production it’s certainly well above average.

#48

so the fact that they used a hl2 crowbar, hl2 pistols, health packs and enemies doesn’t make it awesome? Heck they even used some architecture straight from hl2.

The only problem is they fucked up on the zombies but I blame that on left 4 dead.

#49

Yeah, they got a lot of details right, but the overall feel is not HL2.

They basically made a cool looking action short with HL2 elements tacked on.

#50

why on earth didn’t they just make that metrocop use a stunstick instead of a katana? it would’ve been easier to make (they wouldnt have to get a fucking katana, probably not cheap) and metrocops actually have stunsticks.

#51

Yeah that shit is baffling. It only strengthens my theory that this wasn’t supposed to be based on HL2 early on.

#52

Bull fuckin’ horse shit, man. They used a katana because katanas are way fucking cooler than stun batons.

I guess people applying imagination in their work is considered heresy by fanfag standards.

#53

nah… just annoying when they give introduce crazy shit to a movie about a game that none of that stuff was in.

besides this is a half life forum, you expect no less than QQ?

#54

I’m just saying it would have worked better as an original work. Making this based on HL2 was clearly just a way to push attention to it.

#55

Let’s just say they installed a katana reskin for the stunstick off of FPSB and call it a day

#56

Someone on the production staff probably already owned a katana.

#57

I liked it quite a lot, not entirely true to Half-Life but it doesn’t claim to be so. Combine looked great.

edit:

Pretty much agree with Maxey’s review.

#58

As a Half-Life fan film it failed on SO MANY levels, I could sit here and nit pick but it would be too time consuming.

As a video just to watch not as a fan, meh it had alright action but I shoulda skipped it and done something else.

Also for the film the glowing eye works but for the HL games no. It goes against the combine design being that all their equipment makes logical sense. Whats the point in having your eyes glow other than giving you enemy an easy way to shoot your head in the dark?

#59

they stated on the website that this movie started as a “wouldn’t it be awesome if…?” conversation. that explains the entire fucking movie. some half-life fans started off with an idea for a half-life short and just started building on it. it wasn’t an attempt to “garner attention”. basically, they were working on the idea and somebody said “wouldn’t it be awesome if a metrocop had a katana?”

“shit, well it would be hard to put headcrabs on the zombies without it looking goofy. y’know the ones in that escape from city 17 clip look cheesy as fuck.”
“why don’t we just take them out and make them infected? maybe when a headcrab bites someone it fills them with eggs and falls off? the flesh the zombies eat could nourish the babies, and so it makes sense and we don’t have to include a cheesy ass headcrab.”
“awesome idea!”

mat powell: hey, brian. check out this sweet hologram effect i’ve been working on.
brian curtin: shit, that’s sick. shame it’ll go to waste… hey, why don’t we put it in the movie? your character could pull it out and it would give some direction to that section of the story.
mat powell: siiiick.

brian curtin: hey, i can breakdance! why not add in some awesome flips n shit in this fight scene!

@people bitching about fat asian: the actors were all people who were working on the film. see here. they didn’t hire outside help.

see? the film was awesome. i don’t mind. these guys were fans and they decided to breathe new life into a universe that we’re all wayyyy too fucking familiar with.

#60

Thought it was boring and shitty. Sound work is terrible and got lazy stealing almost every sound effect directly from HL2. Liberties taken with the base material were all done wrong. Overuse of ridiculous post-production techniques (combine eyes being more blinding than the sun just so they can show off flares for instance). Overall it was pretty terrible.

Founded in 2004, Leakfree.org became one of the first online communities dedicated to Valve’s Source engine development. It is more famously known for the formation of Black Mesa: Source under the 'Leakfree Modification Team' handle in September 2004.